Scott Winners
05-26-2021, 11:31 PM
I haven't been happy and went looking. I cut most of my sheet goods with a round spinning blade and a power cord, but those pesky inside corners are quite the bugaboo.
I have been using my utility crosscut saw (8 teeth per inch, 14 degrees rake and 23 degrees fleam) to square up inside corner cuts in plywood after the round blade is up to the line, but I get a lot of blowout or chipout on the backside of the sheet. Or I use my jigsaw. The jig saw leaves a clean edge, but I don't have room to store it with a blade installed; so I don't usually get it out and set it up.
I have been reading up and hope to hear what works for you along the way too.
I did find a blog entry or webpage or similar at Rennaisance Woodworker. The author there suggests a crosscut saw at 10-11-12 teeth per inch with 20 degrees of rake (pretty relaxed for regular wood) and 15 degrees of fleam. I don't have a 10-20-15 in my till, but I do have a 10-20-16. It cuts smoother than the 8 point utility saw, but blowout or chipout on the back is still a problem.
One kludge is to flip the sheet so the face veneer can be severed on the push stroke from both sides. The other problem here is the adhesive (some authors say glue and dirt inclusions) is a lot harder on vintage saw teeth than plain old wood. Doug Fir plywood makes a saw need to be sharpened a LOT faster than just cutting plain old Doug Fir boards and planks.
So I brought in a bunch of the new fangled handsaws from the Home Store and got started this evening. From team blue at about ten bucks I got a ten inch blade with a Craftsman label on it. At team orange I got what looks like exactly the same saw, but with a Stanley label on it.
These look to have been made at the same factory. In common, they have 10 inch blades ( I measured 10.5") "Made in USA of global materials", handles made of multipiece glueups of wood soft enough for me to plane with my thumbnail, assemble with a phillips screwdriver, labeled "smooth cut" at 11 teeth per inch/ 12 points per inch, triple ground indcution hardened teeth. Both are made from 0.035 plate.
The Craftsman one has a clear coat on the plate, the Stanley has a somewhat coarser brush finish on the plate.
I only have one data point each, but the difference in the set of the teeth is quite noticeable, and it made a difference in the cut for me. I have no idea what the production tolerance is on these. it might be that I got a more narrow than average Stanley, a wider than average Crafstman, but both might be "in spec."
My Craftsman has, average, 0.047" of set on it with a (whopping) range of 0.035 to 0.051. This is a poorly set saw. A ten year old could do better on a vintage handsaw with three minutes of instruction in 15 minutes or less. The one Stanley I bought has a average set of 0.022 with a range of 0.017 to 0.025, I will grant that as pretty fair for having been accomplished in likely a high speed environment among production environments.
As you can probably guess, the Stanley with the more consistent set gave me smoother overall cuts. However, both saws were able to give me cuts to the line with the blade perpendicular to the plywood surface and no significant chipout on the back.
These are saws that fit well in my joinery saw till with my dovetail saw and carcass saw and so on. My plan is to take my micrometer with me to the home stores to go measure up kerf widths before I put them in my cart. You don't need to measure plate thickness, they are both 0.035 plate, just measure the kerf width at the tips of the teeth and look for a plate, a saw blade, that consistently comes in around 0.055 to 0.060 kerf width, that is the one you want. If I find a Craftsman labeled one with a kerf width of 0.050 to 0.052 I am going to buy it and expect it to cut more smoothly than the Stanley I already have.
For cleaning up inside corner cuts on sheet goods I think I am done shopping. I am just going to find 3-4 more blades with consistent kerf width before they change the design again, make one comfortable handle and have that problem solved for life.
What works for you?
458431458432458433458434
I have been using my utility crosscut saw (8 teeth per inch, 14 degrees rake and 23 degrees fleam) to square up inside corner cuts in plywood after the round blade is up to the line, but I get a lot of blowout or chipout on the backside of the sheet. Or I use my jigsaw. The jig saw leaves a clean edge, but I don't have room to store it with a blade installed; so I don't usually get it out and set it up.
I have been reading up and hope to hear what works for you along the way too.
I did find a blog entry or webpage or similar at Rennaisance Woodworker. The author there suggests a crosscut saw at 10-11-12 teeth per inch with 20 degrees of rake (pretty relaxed for regular wood) and 15 degrees of fleam. I don't have a 10-20-15 in my till, but I do have a 10-20-16. It cuts smoother than the 8 point utility saw, but blowout or chipout on the back is still a problem.
One kludge is to flip the sheet so the face veneer can be severed on the push stroke from both sides. The other problem here is the adhesive (some authors say glue and dirt inclusions) is a lot harder on vintage saw teeth than plain old wood. Doug Fir plywood makes a saw need to be sharpened a LOT faster than just cutting plain old Doug Fir boards and planks.
So I brought in a bunch of the new fangled handsaws from the Home Store and got started this evening. From team blue at about ten bucks I got a ten inch blade with a Craftsman label on it. At team orange I got what looks like exactly the same saw, but with a Stanley label on it.
These look to have been made at the same factory. In common, they have 10 inch blades ( I measured 10.5") "Made in USA of global materials", handles made of multipiece glueups of wood soft enough for me to plane with my thumbnail, assemble with a phillips screwdriver, labeled "smooth cut" at 11 teeth per inch/ 12 points per inch, triple ground indcution hardened teeth. Both are made from 0.035 plate.
The Craftsman one has a clear coat on the plate, the Stanley has a somewhat coarser brush finish on the plate.
I only have one data point each, but the difference in the set of the teeth is quite noticeable, and it made a difference in the cut for me. I have no idea what the production tolerance is on these. it might be that I got a more narrow than average Stanley, a wider than average Crafstman, but both might be "in spec."
My Craftsman has, average, 0.047" of set on it with a (whopping) range of 0.035 to 0.051. This is a poorly set saw. A ten year old could do better on a vintage handsaw with three minutes of instruction in 15 minutes or less. The one Stanley I bought has a average set of 0.022 with a range of 0.017 to 0.025, I will grant that as pretty fair for having been accomplished in likely a high speed environment among production environments.
As you can probably guess, the Stanley with the more consistent set gave me smoother overall cuts. However, both saws were able to give me cuts to the line with the blade perpendicular to the plywood surface and no significant chipout on the back.
These are saws that fit well in my joinery saw till with my dovetail saw and carcass saw and so on. My plan is to take my micrometer with me to the home stores to go measure up kerf widths before I put them in my cart. You don't need to measure plate thickness, they are both 0.035 plate, just measure the kerf width at the tips of the teeth and look for a plate, a saw blade, that consistently comes in around 0.055 to 0.060 kerf width, that is the one you want. If I find a Craftsman labeled one with a kerf width of 0.050 to 0.052 I am going to buy it and expect it to cut more smoothly than the Stanley I already have.
For cleaning up inside corner cuts on sheet goods I think I am done shopping. I am just going to find 3-4 more blades with consistent kerf width before they change the design again, make one comfortable handle and have that problem solved for life.
What works for you?
458431458432458433458434